DARKO SUVIN
Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On
the Poetics and History of a Literary
Genre
New Haven: Yale University Press,
1979. Pp. xviii + 317. Paper $8.95.
Over the past few years, science fiction
has attracted to itself a n u m b e r of
apologists, critics, and historians, but there
has not been a substantial work that
attempted to provide a philosophical basis
of this literary genre. Darko Suvin's
Metamorphoses of Science Fiction is such an
attempt, and this work gives a foundation
to a range of fiction that is at once varied
in subject matter and uneven in quality.
Professor Suvin has contributed extensively to the corpus of criticism of
science fiction both in his native Yugoslavian and in English; his interests range
from Russian speculative fiction to American Utopias; he has, moreover, an unusual
command of the disparate threads that
make up the historic tapestry of speculative
and science fiction. T h e author is thus
well qualified to approach the ambitious
and perhaps dangerous task that this book
attempts. Whether the book becomes the
definitive word on the subject will depend
largely not upon Suvin's insights, but upon
his own style. Robert Scholes has written
that "This is the most serious, learned,
and energetic work yet written on the history of science fiction"; the reader will
decide for himself how much illumination
is possible in the umbrageous forest of
terms that Suvin has appropriated to his
"poetics."
In his Preface, the author offers the following definition of science fiction:
"Basically, SF is a developed oxymoron, a
realistic unreality . . . the space of a
potent estrangement, validated by the
pathos and prestige of the basic cognitive
norms of our times" (p. viii). T h e text is
divided into two parts: poetics and history.
Part One presents Suvin's definitions and
includes chapters entided "Estrangement
and Cognition," "SF and the Genological
Jungle." "Defining the Literary Genre of
Utopia," and "SF and the Novum." T h e
author here provides a new and enlightening insight into the relationship between
Utopian and science fiction, concluding
that "For all its adventure, romance,
popularization, and wondrousness, SF can
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finally be written only between the Utopian
and anti-utopian horizons" (p. 62). "SF
and the Novum" is a lour de force of academic criticism; so much so that one
wonders whether at times Suvin may not
be indulging himself in ludic pasquinade.
Three-quarters of this book is devoted
to introductions to various unconnected
points in the history of science fiction.
Here Suvin brings together his experience
and penetrating observation to give the
book its most admirable qualities. Taking
as his topics those that have been dealt
with extensively by others, Suvin's erudition
yet manages to comment freshly upon
"The Alternate Island," Mary Shelley, and
H. G. Wells. One chapter, "Russian SF
and its Utopian Tradition," provides
material not within the scope of most
Western critics. T h e connections drawn
between the literary traditions and the
political events during the past hundred
years are provocative.
A final word must be said of Professor
Suvin's bibliography: it excellently reinforces the material and the various questions debated in the text. It also indicates, if the rest of the book did not,
the broad critical foundations upon which
this work is based.
William Prouty
J O H N M. ELLIS
Narration in the German Novelle:
Theory and Interpretation
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1979. Pp. 219.
This book originally appeared in 1974;
the preface is dated October 1971; all
items in the Bibliography—with one exception—are dated 1970 or earlier.
T h e first and longest chapter "is concerned with the general theory of this
undertaking" (p. vii); the following eight
chapters are each devoted to the interpretation of an individual Novelle. T h e author
discusses: Kleist's Das Erdbeben in Chili,
Tieck's Der blonde Eckbert, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Rat Krespel, Grillparzer's Der arme
The International
Fiction Review,
7, N o . 2 (1980)
Spielmann,
Keller's Die drei gerechten
Kammacher, Storm's Der Schimmelreiter,
Hauptmann's Bahnwärter Thiel and Kafka's
Das Urteil.
Professor Ellis does not accept the conventional concept of Novelle, neither as to
period nor as to definition. With refreshing straightforwardness he states in his
introduction: "It is doubtful whether the
search for defining features of the Novelle
has ever been of much assistance for the
interpretation of the texts themselves;
equally doubtful is whether it has furthered
understanding of individual texts to examine them in the light of concepts such as
'Realism' " (pp. 25-26). T h e first chapter
of the book is, therefore, largely devoted
to pointing out—quite convincingly—the
shortcomings of earlier attempts at definition and periodisation of the genre. Ellis
does not offer a definition of his own;
rather, he wants "to demonstrate that to
examine individual Novellen with conscious
and systematic attention to their narrative
structures does further understanding of
them" (p. 26). In this, he does succeed.
All eight examples serve to show that
narration is important not only technically
but also thematically; in this respect
Ellis's book is part of the mainstream of
recent research into the relationship
between narrator(s) and reader(s). T h e
bibliography should have been brought up
to date, but otherwise Professor Ellis's
book is still well worth reading.
Ingrid Schuster
PAUL BRUSS
Conrad's Early Sea Fiction:
The Novelist as Navigator
Lewisburg: Buckneil University
Press, 1979, Pp. 185. $13.50 US
This study, which aims "to expose and
elaborate upon some of the fundamental
professional and sometimes metaphysical
assumptions that underlie Conrad's use of
navigational metaphor," makes no attempt
to explain "the nuances of nautical situations and their appropriate terminology"
in Conrad's early sea fiction (p. 9).
Professor Bruss would, from the initial
chapter, "isolate, first, Conrad's reflec-
Brief
Mentions
tions upon his own initiations at sea and,
second, the major attitudes that underlie
his reflecting and, presumably, his fictionalizing upon life at sea" (p. 16). A few
passages from The Mirror of the Sea (1906),
A Personal Record (1912), Notes on Life and
Utters (1921), and Last Essays (1926) are
isolated to describe "the thrust" (p. 30) of
Conrad's attitudes, thus summarized: "(1)
supremacy of sails to steam, (2) sailing as a
fine art and tradition, and (3) the significance of work as salvation" (p. 22). In
accordance with his purpose. Professor
Bruss rivets his gaze on the text of The
Nigger of the NARCISSUS,
"Karain."
"Youth," Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim,
"Typhoon," "Falk," and "The End of
the Tether." Nowhere in this study does he
refer to the professional nautical texts
available to mariners without the fiction;
nor does he mention any of Conrad's
literary antecedents. A few of Conrad's
other tales are mentioned, but only in
passing, and there is but one reference to
a Conrad letter (and that taken from a
secondary source).
T h e striving for fidelity to the text of
each of the eight tales is the study's great
virtue. T h e perception of "an essential
irony at every juncture" (p. 62) in "Youth."
for example, refutes readings of the tale
as a merely sentimental recollection.
Professor Bruss's commentary on "Typhoon" serves to deflate "any potential view
of MacWhirr as Conrad's hero of strength"
(p. 125): as the text makes plain, but which
many critics have failed to see, it is
MacWhirr's duty to avoid the typhoon.
And a close reading of "The End of the
Tether" shows that Captain Whalley of the
steamer SOFALA is not the sentimental,
innocent, and noble hero he is sometimes
taken to be. But it is in its examination
of the structure of "Karain" that Conrad's
Early Sea Fiction knows its finest moment.
T h e commentator's language here speaks
simply and eloquently: "The first half of
the tale centers upon Karain's activity by
day (chapter 1), his activity by night
(chapter 2), and finally, his arrival at the
schooner amid the black thunderstorm
(chapter 3); the second half, upon Karain's
haphazard journey in the wilderness
(chapter 4), his bewildering expectations of
the narrator (chapter 5), and Finally his
regaining of the dawn via a new charm
(chapter 6). These movements from light
to black storm (chapters 1-3) and then—
ironically—from the wilderness to light
(chapters 4-6) clearly underscore the
narrator's acute understanding of the
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